Robin Swoboda ends run at Channel 3 looking for the positives

"The station couldn’t have been better to me. But your employer deserves somebody with their whole heart in the job, and I deserve to be happy."

Robin Swoboda says that being a news anchor no longer is a good fit, and that's the reason the Friday, Feb. 28, 7p.m. newscast will be her last at WKYC Channel 3.WKYC

CLEVELAND, Ohio – It was time to heave the duties of a news anchor overboard. That’s why Robin Swoboda is wrapping up her three-year stint at WKYC Channel 3 with the Friday, Feb. 28, 7 p.m. newscast.

Swoboda anchored her first Cleveland newscast with Tim Taylor at WJW Channel 8 in 1986. Friday evening looks to be the end of this particular 28-year trail.

No, she’s not retiring. She’s not withdrawing from public life. She’s just calling it quits as a news anchor.

“Your contract has an expiration date, and, when it expires, you need to decide whether or not to renew,” Swoboda said from her home in Medina. “And my heart just isn’t in doing the news anymore, so it’s as simple as that. I’m too young and too bored to retire. My desire would be that, whatever I end up doing, I can wear cowboy boots.”

She emphasizes that her decision has nothing to do with Channel 3, where she has co-anchored the 7 p.m. newscast with Jim Donovan. It has everything to do with reassessing life and goals and aspirations as she moves into her mid-50s.

“When I walked away from a station before, it was to spend more time with my family or for another job opportunity,” Swoboda said. “This feels different, because it’s completely my choice and it doesn’t have anything to do with outside influences. This is just me saying, ‘This just isn’t me.’ ”

Swoboda told The Plain Dealer earlier this month that "there has been so much bad news during the past three years," it has been "quite wearing on me personally."

Starting Monday, Donovan will be the solo anchor on Gannett-owned Channel 3’s 7 p.m. newscast. The station’s president and general manager, Brooke Spectorksy, confirmed this week that there are no immediate plans to replace Swoboda.

“I will certainly miss the people at Channel 3,” Swoboda said. “I’ve always said that Channel 8 didn’t have a lock on good people. The station couldn’t have been better to me.

“But your employer deserves somebody with their whole heart in the job, and I deserve to be happy. And I don’t know what that will be, but I know what it isn’t.”

What it isn’t? That’s the easy part – being a news anchor.

The anchor chair no longer is a comfortable perch, and it hasn’t been for many years. The golden era for Swoboda clearly was that 1986-91 stint as Taylor’s 6 and 11 p.m. co-anchor at Channel 8. The popular news team included two other pals, weatherman Dick Goddard and sports anchor Casey Coleman.

“Tim Taylor and I’ve stayed in touch, and he has said to me that Jimmy and I come close to what we had before at Channel 8,” Swoboda said. “And that’s a lovely compliment, and, if I could sustain it, that would be a lovely thing. But I can’t anymore, and I have to be honest about that for myself and for the station.”

Now for the hard part. What to do next?

“Whatever it is, I want it to be something that will be positive and bring a lot of love and joy and happiness to people,” she said. “I think I have the right idea. I just need to find the right outlet, or outlets, for that. Go with your strength. So now we’ll see if I have any.”

She’s thinking about motivational speaking, commercials and perhaps a podcast. She’s also had discussions about a radio spot and a possible newspaper column.

“I’ve had the opportunity in the past couple of weeks to do some public speaking,” Swoboda said. “And I love that personal contact with a captive audience.

“I love people, and I love making them laugh. That’s extremely gratifying, although, if any of them have ever heard Dick Goddard speak, I have to correct the crazy exaggerations he has told them about me.”

Swoboda first left a Cleveland station in 1991 when her then-husband, former NFL kicker Bryan Wagner, was cut from the Browns and went to the New England Patriots. Swoboda did a short-lived morning show at NBC in New York during that period, returning to Channel 8 in the mid-’90s to anchor the 6 p.m. newscast.

There were stops at WEWS Channel 5 and WFHMFM/95.5. In 2007, she went back to Channel 8 as host of the morning show “That's Life” (renamed “The Robin Swoboda Show” in 2010).

Swoboda made the jump from Fox affiliate Channel 8 to NBC affiliate Channel 3 in March 2011. She and reporter Chris Tye were teamed as co-anchors of the 7 p.m. newscast.

When Mark Nolan decided to leave Channel 3 after 18 years, Tye replaced him as morning news co-anchor. Donovan, the station’s sports anchor, replaced Tye on the 7 p.m. newscast.

Swoboda and Wagner married in 1991. Now divorced, they have three children: Matthew, Hallie and Will.

“The kids are 18, 20 and 22, so this really is a good time to decide what I want to be when I grow up,” Swoboda said. “Every once in a while, I realize I’m going to miss those crazy, fun, unpredictable moments this business gives you.

“But when I think of not having to get up every day and dress as perfectly as possible and get the makeup on as perfectly as possible, that’s when newspaper work looks really good to me.”

Symbolically perhaps, she has let her dyed hair go to natural silver since late last year.

“I’m letting my true self grow out,” she said.

And she’s avoiding the comments being left on stories about her leaving Channel 3.

“It just floors me when people say the most hateful things, attacking me for one reason or another,” Swoboda said. “People anonymously fire off an insult from behind a screen, and it’s incredibly hurtful.

“I have no time for people who just want to be mean, and I can’t do anything about their issues, but I can protect myself from them. So I try to stay away from it and not read it.”

So, has this been an emotional final week at Channel 3?

“Let’s face it, every week is a roller-coaster week for me emotionally,” Swoboda said with a laugh. “But, you know, not so much. I usually save my emotions for my kids and the things closest to me.

“I don’t know that anything will be as emotional as when I left Channel 8 the first time, where I just sobbed by the back door with Dick Goddard. Nothing will ever compare to that.”

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